


The Cookie Demon

by WaffleBee



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2019-06-13
Packaged: 2020-04-06 05:01:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19055746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WaffleBee/pseuds/WaffleBee
Summary: Weiss had always been a girl of ambition and desire for improvement. That's why she spends every waking moment before leaving for Beacon Academy, practicing the one skill she can't seem to learn. Summoning. But when something goes wrong and she accidentally summones a spirit from the beyond her neat and ordered world is thrown into chaos by the one and only Ruby Rose, The Cookie Demon.





	1. Chapter 1

The temperature of the hall suddenly rose several degrees. Wind without a source blew in circles, setting the chandeliers in motion. The heavy decorations groaned as they swung on old chains; still, the wind picked up. Tall arched windows shook in their frames, faster and faster it blew until it seemed it would break free of the hall’s constraint. Then it blew towards the center like drawn in by a giant's breath. There, above a slowly spinning ice blue glyph, a flower grew. From an indistinguishable point in the air, a green stalk sprouted, it quickly reached towards the ceiling, growing taller at an unreasonable speed. At the height of a man and the girth of an arm, it stopped. The green bud at its top bloomed; giant red petals slowly extended outwards. 

The rose shimmered in the light from the still swinging chandeliers and filled the hall with a pleasant scent. Then, the collected wind seemed to burst out of the flower in an explosion of normal-sized red rose petals, spreading their beauty and scent to every corner of the hall, and from inside the solitary flower at its center, I rose. 

Hey, it's not every day you are summoned to the mortal realm; I wanted to leave a good first impression, and from the looks of it, I had. My summoner stood slack-jawed only meters away, her hair and clothes pelted in rose petals (might have gone a little overboard on that one). She was pretty good looking, for a human that is, obviously nothing can compare to my own supernatural beauty. Her white hair hung in a single long off-kilter ponytail. From a fair-skinned face, two light blue eyes gazed upon me with a bewildered look. She was dressed in an ice blue dress and in her hand she held silver rapier.

I had chosen to appear in my preferred human form, a young girl with a cute brown bob of hair with glowing red highlights, silver eyes, and a fashionable (and practical) red combat dress. You never know what kind of situation you might be summoned into, so it's best to come prepared. When the summoning theatrics were over, I lazed over the edge of my giant rose, in a position I hope would come across as cool.

I waited for her to speak. The summoner is usually the one that speaks first you see. They start with an introduction since they already know our name, the spirit's that is since they use it to summon us. It's common curtsy, really. But as the seconds turned to minutes, the girl seemed too transfixed by my appearance to make the customary first move. It was not unheard of, young summoners too shocked by their first summon to follow tradition. But usually, they would have a master nearby to remind them of what to do.

I looked around the room. It was a large training hall, shelves brimming with equipment and weapons lined the walls. Tall arched windows let in frosty white light which mixed with the warm yellow of the chandeliers. But besides my summoner, there were no other people present. Had she done her first summon on her own? Again, not unheard of, but exceedingly dangerous, since many spirits aren't very fond of being summoned. Not me though, I have no problem with being summoned, as long as the summoner is nice and gives me plenty of sweets.

I sighed, it looked like I would have to make the first move. I rose to my full height, which wasn't very tall, but the flower helped me tower over the summoner and crossed my arms.

"Greetings mortal," I began, I made my voice a few octaves lower than normal; it would have sounded quite stupid in my normal voice, believe me. "I am Ruby Rose, a spirit of the fourth realm, watcher of the eternal flame, sister of Yang Xiao Long the dragon of the west." Sounds impressive eh. It's all meaningless really, true, but meaningless (don't tell Yang I said she was meaningless), but it sounds cool and usually gets a reaction out of your summoner. 

"To whom has I been summoned?" I finished. During my short but sweet speech, the girl had barely moved, if not for her slowly rising chest I might have believed her to be dead. Again, the seconds ticked by and I received nothing but a blank stare in response. I'll admit, I was getting a little frustrated at this point, it was not easy putting together all these theatrics and I did expect to get some recognition for them, was a small applause really so much to ask?

I sighed again and released my hold upon the magic rose. It disintegrated together with all the rose petals, turning into golden dust, that shimmered out of existence. I floated down until I hovered just above the lazily spinning glyph. I was now just a little taller than the girl, much less intimidating I'm sure and she did follow me with her eyes, so she wasn't completely lost. I tried again with the introduction but using my normal voice this time.

"Hello, I'm Ruby Rose, what's your name?" A completely normal human introduction, this had to pull her out of her stupor.

"W-Weiss," she stammered, then she seemed to steel herself and instead of standing slightly bent with a blank look, she stretched to her full height, which actually put her at eye level with me. Ramrod straight and with eyes that went from meek to hard in record time, she continued. "Weiss Schnee," she said. "And what are you?"

"I told you," I said, "I'm a spirit. You should know, you are the one that summoned me to this mortal realm."

"I did no such thing," she said, she was picking up steam now that I wasn't towering over her anymore.

"Well, you did, or I wouldn't be here."

"I was practicing my guardian summoning. I don't know who or what you are, but you need to leave, this is private property." 

Did nothing of what I said get through to this girl? Also, this glyph I was floating above, I hadn't gotten a good look at it before when it was hidden by my flower and all, but now that I could see it clearly. Well, it certainly was no pentacle. There was no five-pointed star, no sacred text to keep the summoner safe, and no hieroglyphs to keep me trapped. It looked like a snowflake. It was still a summoning circle, I could feel the magic radiating off it, but it looked like a snowflake. It was lucky I had been the one to answer the call, with none of the protections of a pentacle, well, if a more irritable spirit had answered, I dread to think what could have happened to the girl. 

Oh, right, the girl. She was looking at me, irritation pouring out of her like beer out of a badly tapped keg (I picked that one up from Yang, again, please don't tell on me). She was clearly waiting for me to leave, guess I have to disappoint her.

"I can't just 'leave'," I said, and did air-quotes for added effect. "I'm bound to you since you summoned me. But if you don't need me you can just dismiss me."

"Then I dismiss you, you may leave," she said haughtily and pointed towards a large double door, that presumably lead out of the hall.

I blinked a few times; I'll admit, I did not expect that. I looked back at her through narrowed eyes, something was not right here. "That's now how this works. Do you really know how to summon?" The snowflake, the confusion, it was all adding up, but I did not like the sum.

"Of course I do," she squeaked, like what I said was the most offensive thing she ever heard.

She was about to say something else when a yell blew in from outside the hall, like thunder in June it seemed to set the girl instantly on edge. "Weiss! Where are you?" It was a deep voice, her master maybe? Or her father.

"Father!" Weiss exclaimed, when a man burst in through the doors and pointed at me. "Tell this girl to leave immediately!"

"What girl?" he asked angrily, his large white mustache vibrated as he spoke, "there is none but you here." 

"B-but—" she stammered and looked at me. I pretended not to notice; instead, focusing on my suddenly very interesting nails.

"Hurry up and get ready, if you are late to the bullhead it leaves without you," he barked. "I have already told you what I think of this venture of yours. But if you are going to do it against my wishes, then do are to do so properly."

"Yes father," she murmured, her face lowered but her eyes sought out mine; I grinned at her confusion. With his daughter subdued he left the hall, and the doors swung shut with a bang, a bang that startled Weiss into an undignified little jump.

She settled and looked at me. "How..." she asked after a moment of silence.

"I'm a spirit remember," I said happily, "only those I chose can see me." I can also transform into most animals and use all kinds of magic, but hey, no need to expose all my secrets at once. "So, can you dismiss me now? Since you don't seem to need me for anything, I would rather return to the spirit realm."

"S-sure," she said. It seemed like she believed me now or believed me enough to want to get rid of me at least. "How do I dismiss you?"

Wait. That doesn't sound good.

"What do you mean?" I asked pensively. "You are the summoner, you should know the spells for summoning and dismissing."

"I don't know either, as I told You, I was practicing my guardian summoning. I don't know where you came from!" she exclaimed.

"So you don't know the dismissal spell?"

"No."

"That's not good."

"What, you don't know them?"

"Of course I don't know them. Spells are for summoners, my magic is instinctual."

"But if neither of us knows it, what happens to you then?"

I gave her a long look. "That means I'm stuck here," I said, landed softly on the floor, took a step forward, and pressed my finger against her chest, "with you." 

She recoiled slightly at my touch, which might have been my fault, I'm not very good at keeping a normal human body temperature; I usually go a few degrees too hot. I could see her brain working behind her eyes as she tried to think of some way to refute the statement.

"Can't you just go back on your own?" she asked eventually.

"No," I said and crossed my arms, "I'm bound here by you. The only way for me to go back is for you to dismiss me, or..." I hesitated, the other option was a bit... extreme.

"Or what?"

"Or you could die," I finished.

"WHAT!?" The shrill scream made me grimace, I was glad my ears were only a construct, if they were real, they would definitely be ringing.

I shrugged. "Notice how I said 'You can die?' I won't kill you," I assured her. "It's going to happen eventually, I guess I'll just have to wait."

"That is not the problem here," she snapped, the edge of her rapier coming uncomfortably close to me as she talked with her hands. "Are you just going to hang around here for another century, or what?"

"I'll hang around You for another century," I said and pressed my finger against her again, this time she didn't recoil at my touch, maybe it wasn't my body temperature? She paled at the prospect and I could not help but grin. "You are the summoner after all."

"I can't have some weird ghost..."

"Spirit," I corrected her.

"Spirit following me!" she insisted. "I'm about to leave for Beacon Academy and..." 

She went even paler after that, looks like she had forgotten something. Without a word, she walked past me towards the doors. With a sigh, a roll of my eyes, and a shake of my head, I followed.


	2. Chapter 2

I followed the girl; I mean Weiss, guess I better call her by her name. The next century would be unbearable enough without getting on her bad side immediately. And I mean, I would rather be called by my own name, so why wouldn't she?

I followed Weiss out of the hall, careful to only be visible to her; it would not do to cause her unnecessary trouble, even if that was kind of what she was doing for me. Though, since there were no protections in the summoning circle, there was nothing stopping me from just killing her myself. Besides my conscience, which meant I could never do it. Thanks, dad.

The hallway outside was tall, long, and terribly foreboding. The walls were decorated with everything from paintings to old sets of armor. From the ceiling hung, you guessed it, chandeliers, the servants must have had one hell of a time before electricity. Every detail was meticulous and there was not a speck of dust to be found, and believe me, I looked. I looked over several old and probably priceless vases, a few paintings, on top of the chandeliers, and even inside a set of armor by phasing through it. There was a mouse inside the armor, which was weird, but no dust, which was weirder. The mouse was actually a great storyteller, and I took a moment to hear his tale. But I could feel Weiss leaving me behind, so I waved goodbye to my small furry friend and hurried after her. I decided not to tell her of my discovery; she didn't seem like the sort to appreciate it.

Weiss walked on the verge of running through a maze of corridors and doorways; I stayed on her heels as to not get lost. The rest of the house, mansion, or maybe castle, was as perfect as the first corridor. Everything seemed to be placed with the specific intent of never being moved, like a museum. But unlike a museum this place was color-coded to be as boring as possible, nothing but white and black as far as the eye could see; even the paintings seemed to be in monochrome. All except for a single blue dress, and like a beacon in the dark I followed it. Though, it might just be a bout of teenage rebellion.

We passed a lot of closed doors; I looked through some of them, but most of the rooms beyond were nothing special. Guest bedrooms, small living rooms, and workrooms. But one doorway caught my attention when the sweet smell of cookies pulled me off the trail of my master and into its delicious embrace. 

The kitchen beyond was huge, rows of clean metallic surfaces glinted in the fluorescent light (at least it wasn't lit by chandeliers). Several large ovens stood clustered in a corner and there, cooling on a rack, I spied a steaming pile of newly baked cookies. Being the kind and empathetic spirit that I am, I decided to make sure the cookies were safe for consumption. It would not do to have my master poisoned by a bad batch of cookies.

I made a beeline for the cookies, which meant walking through a few cabinets and stoves. I had never been a big fan of walking through things; it rearranges you something fierce. But when it comes to cookies, no sacrifice is too great, except for losing the cookies. They were chocolate chip cookies, which just so happens to be the best sort of cookies, and the only good reason to ever come to the mortal realm willingly. They were still soft, with large half-melted pieces of chocolate. If you were to get them from a bakery, they would probably be called luxury cookies or something, and be extra expensive. But since I was on a very important mission, I took a few cookies to... test, and then a few more as payment for the tests.

Now I don't actually need to eat, since, you know, I'm a spirit. But I can simulate taste buds, and boy did I simulate taste buds. The cookies were heavenly, perfectly baked as to still be soft inside, but with crunch as you bit into them. Whoever had made them deserved praise, and a raise. 

I must have eaten at least fifteen cookies by the time a throat clearing cough brought my attention to the kitchen's entrance. A short and plump woman stood there, clothed in white with a black apron and a tall white hat. The head chef, probably. She stared at me with beady brown eyes and wielded a soup ladle like Weiss wielded her rapier. No, actually, she held it more like a mace. Guess I found out who made the cookies, think I'll leave the praising for later.

"And what," she said in a voice that was way too shrill for her appearance, "are you doing in my kitchen?"

"Nohin." Not very eloquent, but my mouth was full of cookies. For how she was seeing me, well, I must have let my invisibility slip; sugar does that to me. It interrupts my magic in weird ways. I checked, and it seemed it would be a little while before I could vanish again. Not great, but at least my form was stable, it would be worse if I melted in the middle of the kitchen.

"Those cookies are for Mr. Schnee and his guests," she said with narrowed eyes, and waddled into the kitchen, the doors closing behind her. I kept my eyes on the ladle, in this form, it would hurt.

"Oh, well that's great, I'm a guest of... a Schnee," I said, best to keep Weiss's name out of this. Either way, I doubted it would help much; she didn't seem like the kind of person who would invite friends for cookies. 

"Really," she said. She was getting pretty close now, only a couple of rows away. My eyes darted around looking for an escape route. There, another door almost behind me. "For I remember his guests tonight being investors to the Schnee Dust Company, and you don't seem to fit the bill."

That was my cue, it was time to leave. "Oh, well you see," I stalled, slowly inching towards the door as she closed in. I threw a theatrical glance at a large clock hanging on the wall. "Oh, look at the time, I simply must be going."

I quickly scooped up as many cookies as I could carry and dodged the ladle as it came flying towards me. The ladle continued its journey until it came to an abrupt stop upon an oven. With the sound of a gong ringing in my ears, I managed a tiny bit of magic, tripping the chef. She fell flat on her behind with a loud splat and her face turned a comical shade of red. I rushed for the kitchens second exit and threw myself against the door. It flew open on well-oiled hinges, and I flew through like a well-oiled weasel. 

"Thief!" the chef bellowed behind me. "Stop the cookie thief!"

I didn't pause to see if she would try and catch me, instead, I looked around the new room. It was an oversized (not surprising anymore) dining hall. A huge table dominated its center, surrounded by high-backed chairs and covered by a white tablecloth. At the other end of the hall, at the end of the table stood an extra-large and pompous chair. It was decorated with an overbearing amount of gold and silver, and on the wall behind it hung a gigantic portrait of Weiss's father. The man must truly love his own face.

I hurried through the dining hall and out through an arched entrance. I was back in a corridor, but with no idea of where I'd left the previous one, nor where Weiss had run off to, I was hopelessly lost. But I couldn't just stand around and wait for someone to find me, they'd take all my cookies! Picking a direction at random I set off in a brisk walk. I'd long since perfected the skill of eating whilst walking, and that talent came to good use now.

It didn't take long before I ran into someone else, a servant by the looks of it. I ducked into a side room before they spotted me. It was a guest room, just one of many, a perfectly made bed, a dresser, a carpet, and a window. Nothing special. I devoured another cookie and walked over to the window.

The outside was as bleak as the inside. A thick layer of snow covered everything like a white blanket. The sun hung low in the cloudless sky, as if too tired to pull itself up and give us some warmth. A gray machine stood alone a fair bit away with a single person walking towards it.

Drats, that was definitely Weiss, that hairdo was hard to miss, a long white ponytail flying like a pennon in the strong winds. The bullhead (I assumed) looked like it would be flying. Double drats, I did not feel like flying after my master to wherever she was going.

I ran back to the door but stopped short of opening it; I could hear voices on the other side. I pressed my ear against the wood and listened.

"I saw someone going this way," a male voice said. 

"Hurry, she couldn't have gone far," another one exclaimed. 

"For her sake, I hope she's long gone; Martha was pissed," a third one snickered. 

I silently backed away from the door. It sounded like news of my cookie heist had spread. This made things a little more difficult. Weiss was still walking, following the shoveled path from the mansion, but soon she would board and leave. I looked down at the two cookies I had left. It would be a shame to throw them away, so I stuffed them in a pocket. Another good thing about the combat dress is all the pockets.

Since the mansion was probably crawling with nosy servants by now, the corridors and normal exits were out of the question. I would have to get a little more creative. The window was the obvious escape route, but a quick inspection showed it to be bolted shut, with no way of opening it. However, I hadn't eaten a cookie for at least two minutes now, and my magic was returning, which gave me an idea.

"Sorry Weiss," I mumbled, and placed a hand on the window. The surface was cold to the touch; the air outside must be well below freezing. I summoned enough magic to change reality, the magic streamed from my connection to the spirit realm and through my physical form, making my highlights and eyes glow like Christmas lights. A halo of light appeared around my hand and the glass inside it faded away. I shivered when cold air rushed in through the newly made hole. It wasn't very big, but it didn't need to be; I would change my form to fit. But what would happen to the cookies if I transformed with them on me? I actually didn't know; I had never tried it before. 

But there's no time like the present.

With a poof and a blinding light, the brown-haired girl was gone, and a white dove appeared in her place. It looked around but saw no cookies on itself, nor on the ground. It did a weird sort of motion that, had it been done by a person, could have been a shrug, and took flight. Through the hole in the glass and away across the mansion grounds it flew. Flapping its small wings frantically against the winds that buffeted it. The air was indeed freezing, and the dove puffed its feathers as best it could.

Weiss was almost at the bullhead when the dove landed right before her. She startled at the sudden appearance of a bird that does not normally live in Atlas. The dove tilted its head as it looked at her with... glowing silver eyes? She leaned in towards the dove to take a closer look. There were red feathers mixed into the white ones.

"What..?" Weiss murmured, then the dove disappeared in a blinding light, and when her vision cleared; a brown-haired girl stood before her.

The first thing I did was check my pockets, and to my delight, the cookies were still there. They were at risk of melting though; I had increased my body temperature more than usual to combat the cold, and snow was turning into steam around me. Weiss did jump back at my transformation, but that's only to be expected.

"Ta-da!" I exclaimed and threw my arms into the air. "Bet you didn't see that coming."

Silence, as the seconds ticked by. She really was a tough crowd to please. All I wanted was a small applause, or some tiny token of recognition for my talents.

"No, I didn't," she snapped eventually. "And why are you still here?"

"I thought we went over this," I sighed. "Accept it, Weiss, you are stuck with me."

She gave me a long look, one interrupted by the pilot peaking out of the bullhead.

"Miss, are you ready to go?" he asked. Probably wondering why Weiss was talking to herself a few meters away from the bullhead.

"Yes, sorry," she said and gave me another scathing look as she walked past. I could only shrug and smile before I followed her into the bullhead.

The interior was warm and comfy, so I lowered my body temperature by a few degrees, no reason to further melt the poor cookies. It was pretty spartan, a single compartment with a few seats and a door to the cockpit; nothing like the mansion we had just left.

Weiss took a seat as the hatch closed and the engines roared to life. I took the one next to her, mostly to irritate her, but also to make friends. I succeeded in the first part immediately. She crossed her arms and pointedly looked away from me. I was going to talk to her, but then my stomach dropped as the bullhead took flight. It certainly wasn't the smooth flight of a dove, more like the dodgy flight of a drunk butterfly. The bullhead shook and leaped as it shot through the lower layers of the atmosphere, and leveled out as we reached higher, thinner air.

Time to smooth things over.

"Hey Weiss, do you want a cookie?"

"What?" she asked, and looked at me, she seemed uncertain. Maybe she thought I was joking, as if I would ever pull her (pony) tail.

"Do you want a cookie?" I asked again and held out one of my two last pieces of loot.

"Where did you find this?" she asked and took the cookie. "Can you create cookies?"

"No, of course not. I found them in the kitchen."

"Which kitchen?" she asked suspiciously.

"Your kitchen, what other kitchen could it possibly have been?"

"You mean these are the cookies my dad had made for the meeting this afternoon?"

"Yup, that sounds about right," I mused and took a bite out of my last cookie. A threw a glance towards the cockpit, but the door was closed so hopefully the pilot wouldn't see me pop into existence all of a sudden. 

"How many did you take?"

"As many as I could carry, I ate most of them on the way here. But don't worry, I saved that one for you." Aren't I generous?

She looked away and... was that a smile on her face? Was she trying to hide a smile with her hand? If that was the case, she was doing a pretty bad job of it.

"Martha will be so mad," she mumbled into her hand.

"Oh, she was," I laughed. "If by Martha you mean the, eh, big lady with the apron?."

"Yes that's Martha, did you take the cookies from under her nose?" she asked, her eyes wide in astonishment.

"Yeah, you should have seen her face when I tripped her," I said and made my face blush until it was shining red. "Stop the cookie thief!" I bellowed in imitation of the chef.

Weiss snickered, it was a delightful sound, very different from her normal snide tone, and I couldn't help but smile. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.


	3. Chapter 3

The ride wasn't terrible. I mean, the engines were overly loud and sudden winds would shake us up a bit now and then. But the pilot kept to himself and the climate was comfortable. I'd definitely ridden worse flying machines. I remember one made of wood, can you believe that? They built an airplane out of wood! The ride in that one was terrible, felt like it would shake my spine lose. And as of that wasn't bad enough, I had to spend the entire ride keeping up a protective field around my summoner; least I be covered by vomit. He got motion sick easily you see. Compared to that, this was like riding on cotton candy.

Weiss was sleeping; cutely snuggled up against my side (guess I make for a comfy pillow). A position she would rather die than find herself in whilst awake, I'm sure. She had fallen asleep sometime after we had left Atlas and flown out over the open ocean, after the sun had finally dipped below the horizon. I studied her features for a bit, she was so peaceful when she was asleep. Ponytail falling lazily down her side, lips slightly parted, her chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm. I had only known her for a few hours, but I could already tell she tried way to hard whilst awake; it was nice to know she relaxed a bit when sleeping. 

I probed her for magic, and for the umpteenth time I felt that strange energy that surrounded her. I was careful to not probe to deep; I had made that mistake earlier. It wasn't dangerous, just... uncomfortable. It was like her magic was tied to her immortal soul, something I had never felt in a human before. My magic was, of course, linked with my soul. My soul is my entire being as a spirit. But for humans, for all living things really, they have their physical form, and it's through that they channel magic. They have a soul too, of course, it's just not what they use for magic. It's different from spirits, and it disconnects them from the true beauty and capability of magic. It also protects them from the wilder parts, like getting your soul swept away on magical currents. 

However, Weiss wasn't like that, she was something in between a spirit and a human. She had magic, the same I had seen in humans before. But it seemed very restricted as the only magic she could employ was her glyphs. And that strange energy that surrounded her. She had called it her aura when I asked about it, apparently it protects her from harm. I would just call it a soul, but it's a minor distinction. 

Which is all to say, when I probed to deep, we ended up touching souls, which is how spirits... 

... 

Anyway. Like I was saying, her magic was very limited. Her semblance, as she called it, was glyphs. A semblance she shared with her sister, which supposedly was unusual. Other people had other semblances and they could manifest into almost anything. To be honest, it all sounded a little weird, but it did line up with the other things I had seen. 

My conclusion? I had been summoned by accident and I was probably the first spirit in this world. Ruby Rose, blazing trails in the weirdest ways possible; I'm sure mom would be proud if she could see me all the way down here. 

I looked out the small circular window. There hadn't been much to see during the journey, just an endless expanse of ocean. Weiss was lucky to have fallen asleep, whatever she was dreaming about must be much more interesting than this view. I had spent most of the flight watching the waves far below. After the sun had risen again a few hours earlier I thought I saw something large moving beneath the surface, something with arms and legs instead of fins, but that was probably just the light playing with me. I spent the rest of the flight being incredibly bored, I couldn't exactly move, or Weiss would wake up. She was like a cat, the way she was curled up, and just like a cat, if you wake it, it's literally the end of world. So I had no choice but to sit still and watch the waves. 

Though, was that land? I squinted, it was hard to tell through the morning haze which still remained close to the water. I improved my eyes a bit with magic. One of the advantages of not having a set form, you could change small things when you needed to.

It was land, and with my improved eyesight I could even make out buildings and streets. A coastal city, and as we approached, I could make out more details. A bustling port with ships moving in and out, filled with containers, and people working the morning shift. Weiss had said Vale, the capital of the kingdom with the same name, because that wasn't confusing or anything, was out destination. And this city seemed large enough to be a capital.

I lightly shook Weiss's shoulder. "Hey, Weiss, we are there," I mumbled as to not startle her awake. 

She rose from her slumber slowly, her eyes fluttering open, only to close again as she yawned. I waited to see her reaction to her current position, as she didn't seem to be in any hurry to change it. She looked up at me, and I could see the gears turning behind her heavy eyes.

Weiss startled back as much as the seat allowed, as if burned by the contact. For a moment I could see uncertainty in her eyes, before she returned to her normal reserved self, hiding behind a wall of snide comments and arrogance. But I didn't let her get the first word. 

"Morning," I said, and sent her a radiant smile. "I'm afraid I don't have any coffee to offer you. And as much as it pains me to say this; we are out of cookies."

"I-I," she stammered, at a loss for words as her brain worked overtime. When no clear comeback presented itself she slumped a little. "I don't drink coffee," she mumbled, "you could have woken me." 

"But you are so cute when you're sleeping," I teased her and saw a blush slowly creep up her neck. "By the way, I think we are—" I didn't get to finish before I was rudely interrupted by speakers chiming to life.

"Miss, we are now approaching Vale." The pilot's voice echoed in the small compartment; made tinny by the terrible speakers. I pouted in the general direction of the cockpit before turning back to Weiss. 

"Now will you finally tell me why we are here?" I asked. She had been incredibly tight lipped on the topic before. But now that we were here I hoped she would be more forthcoming.

"I told you," she said in her favorite haughty voice. "I'm here to learn how to be a huntress at Beacon Academy."

"Yes, I guess you did." OK, I'll admit, she did tell me that much. But that's not enough to go on, I'm supposed to be her friendly neighborhood spirit, her guardian angel, I need more to go on. "But do you not have schools on the other side of the massive ocean we just crossed? What is so special about this one that you had to go here?"

"I..." She hesitated, just like before she had fallen asleep. I smiled at her in an attempt to coax out the reason she decided to travel (by my estimation) halfway around the world for school. 

She steeled herself, but with that glint in her eyes. That glint that means 'I'm going to tell you the truth, but only a sliver of it.' It's a sign you quickly learn to recognize as a spirit; it's often considered dangerous to tell us the whole truth. But it was definitely better than nothing.

"It's the best academy for hunters in the world. And I only accept the best," she said, nose pointing towards the heavens.

"Is that all you are going to give me?" 

"What? I don't need to tell you anything."

"Guess not," I sighed, again something I was used to as a spirit. Humans really don't trust us for the most part. Might have something to do with millennia of bad pranks and lies, but that's what you get when you rip someone from their home to do your bidding.

"And are you going to look like that?" Weiss continued. "You are not signed up so you can't follow me into the school as a student." She almost sounded victorious, as if she had foiled my plan of being a good spirit. But I had actually thought about that and come up with an ingenious solution. 

"Are you a cat person or a dog person?" I asked happily. 

"A dog person," she said, taken aback by the sudden question. "But why—" 

Weiss didn't get to finish. There was no flash of light this time, only a quiet 'poof' and Ruby was gone. No, not gone, changed. Weiss blinked and openly stared at the black and gray corgi that now sat on the seat. Intelligent silver eyes stared back with a slightly annoyed look, her large fluffy ears moved about as she got comfortable in this new form.

"Wow..." Weiss breathed. "You really can transform."

"What? Did you think the dove was a hallucination?" The dog asked, the voice was eerily familiar to the brown-haired girl's, but with some distortion; dogs aren't as good at speaking as humans. Not that Weiss payed any attention to such small details, she was busy panicking over being spoken to by a dog.

"Y-you can speak?!" she stammered out, half-way out of her seat.

"Of course I can speak. We have been talking for a while," Ruby said. "Weiss, do you need a doctor?" 

Its ears waved and nose sniffed the air as Weiss paled; with its superior sense of smell it picked up on the many nuances on the ship. The strong smell of cleaner and oil, the scent of Weiss; she didn't smell too bad, it thought. But there was the scent of another person. Ruby turned her furry head and saw the pilot standing in the open door to the cockpit. Wide eyed and with a slack jaw he stared at the talking dog.

Ruby let out a weird sort of doggy sigh and locked eyes with the pilot. Weiss couldn't help but breathe in sharply as Ruby's eyes lit up like shards of the broken moon, and the red fur lining her ears glowed dimly. The pilot slouched where her stood, his eyes losing focus. Weiss looked between them, she could feel energies radiating off Ruby, like a semblance, but not quite.

It only lasted another moment; Ruby stopped glowing and the pilot straightened his back, the light in his eyes reignited.

"Miss, I just wanted to make sure you were ready, we are almost at Beacon Academy."

It took Weiss a moment to notice she had been spoken to. "Yes," she said quickly, her gaze snapping up from the dog, now panting happily at her side. "Thank you, I'll be ready when we land."

He cast a glance towards Ruby, but didn't seem to see anything beyond dog she masqueraded as. "I didn't think Mr. Schnee approved of pets," he said, and nodded towards Ruby.

"H-he doesn't," Weiss spluttered. "It's a—a moving out gift, from my sister." 

She placed a hand on Ruby's head and gave her a few cautious pats. Ruby barked happily at the attention and... winked? Weiss bit back another shock as, what definitely looked like a corgi, winked at her. Weiss also gave Winter a silent apology for throwing her under the buss. The pilot would most likely report anything and everything she did back to her father. But it was the best explanation she could come up with. Either way, at Beacon she would be mostly out of his reach.

The pilot shrugged, but his gaze lingered on Ruby. Not entirely convinced of the dogs origins. Ruby gave him a pointed look, well, as pointed as a cute corgi's silver eyes could be. Weiss wasn't sure, but she thought she saw a flash of light in those silver discs.

"Make sure it's secured," the pilot said and turned back into the cockpit. "We'll land in a few minutes."

"Sure," Weiss said, and absentmindedly ran her nails across Ruby's furry head.

"You know, you are pretty good at petting," Ruby purred after the cockpit door closed; her stumpy tail wagging a mile a minute and her eyes half-closed.

Weiss withdrew her hand as if Ruby's fur had suddenly turned electric. She hadn't known corgis could grin, and now she wished she had never seen it. 

"Aw," Ruby sighed as she looked up at Weiss, "why did you stop?"

Weiss refused to meet her eyes and stared at the ceiling; her cheeks seemed to have developed a permanent rose coloring. 

"You are too easy to tease, Weiss," Ruby giggled, and laid down in her seat. "You need to relax." 

"Easy for you to say," Weiss muttered and fell into her own seat, still refusing to look at Ruby. "You don't know what I have gone through; what I have to deal with." 

Weiss heard shuffling, but didn't move until a paw landed on her thigh. She looked down to find Ruby looking up at her with her large dog eyes.

"You're right," she said, "I don't know. But I want to. And I'm reiterating because it seems I didn't get through the first few times. I'm stuck here, Weiss. I'm stuck here with you and I want to help you because that's what I do, but I can't help you if I don't know what's wrong." 

Weiss stared at her with wide eyes; that was not what she had expected to hear from what she considered a demon sent to punish her for past sins.

"I..." she began.

"You don't have to explain yourself right now," Ruby said and sat straight as the bullhead began its descent. "We'll have plenty of time later. Now could you help me with this seat belt? Paws aren't very good for these things."

"Sure," Weiss mumbled after a moment's pause, and busied herself with strapping in the suspiciously cooperative dog. Her life was really taking a turn, she only hoped it was for the better.


End file.
